Overfishing, Waste Dumping Drove Somalis to Piracy

When things get bad, people get desperate – and things in Somalia have been really bad for a while. Somali pirates have taken over the Gulf of Aden and as you know, unless you’ve been living under a rock, have been in the news a lot lately for taking international hostages.  While some people might opine that these pirates are simply bloodthirsty criminals, the fact is that stark hardships have spurred these people to act for their own survival, at all costs.

The surprising root of Somali pirates’ desperate acts? Overfishing and waste dumping in Somali waters.

From Treehugger:

Thousands of Somalis once made their living as fishermen. But Somalia has been without a central government for nearly two decades—so there’s no active body that’s able to effectively protect the country’s rights to its coastline, and the once-abundant supply of fish it held. So now, due to the willingness of foreigners to exploit fisheries off Somalia’s coast, and the lack of a governing body to stave them off, many of these fishermen are finding their nets empty.

And without the ability to bring home even a sufficient amount of fish to eat, many of these fisherman justifiably grow desperate. But even from here, it’s not a simple jump to pirating. Initially, many of the now-termed “pirates” were vigilante patrol squads, steering their boats to fishing vessels they found illegally snagging seafood or dumping toxic waste in Somali waters and demanding they pay a tax. After this proved ineffective, something closer to organized piracy developed.

Read more about one Somali pirate’s account of the motivation to hijack ships and take hostages at The New York Times.

Beyond overfishing, there’s another major problem for Somalians: the dumping of radioactive waste into the country’s coastal waters. Since the collapse of Somalia’s government in 1991, Western goverments and corporations have taken full advantage of the lack of oversight and used the country as a dumping ground. The secret was uncovered after the 2004 tsunami, but has barely received coverage in the media. Some people even claim that some of the pirates are eco-warriors, working to clean up the mess.

So, what does it all come down to? Greed. Power. Lack of concern for other human beings – on all sides. The ugliest facets of human nature. Somali pirates can’t be let off the hook for their actions because of the injustice they’ve been through, but they aren’t all the evil killers that so many people make them out to be.

Link [Treehugger]
Photo credit: The Guardian

Granite Countertops May be Tainted with Uranium

Would you like some cancer with those sweet granite countertops? Granite has been all the rage for the last decade or so, gaining 5% in popularity with each passing year. Homeowners might be getting more than they bargained for when completing kitchen renovations, however. Rice University physics professor W.J. Llope says that some granite countertops contain high levels of uranium which can endanger human health.

From Chron.com:

“Most stones, in terms of radioactivity, are relatively quiet,” Llope said. “But there are a couple I have found that are insanely hot.”

Using a Rice University spectrometer, Llope has examined 55 stones, representing about 25 varieties of granite purchased from Houston-area dealers. Some, he said, could expose homeowners to 100 millirems of radiation — the annual exposure limit set by the Department of Energy for visitors to nuclear labs — in just a few months.

Llope, who said he plans to publish his findings in a peer-reviewed journal, declined to name the most hazardous varieties of granite he has thus far examined. But he said dangerously radioactive varieties include striated granites from Brazil and Namibia.

As many as 1,600 varieties of granite from 64 countries are sold for household use in the United States. None of them is routinely tested for radioactivity.

Scientists are currently being assembled to develop a protocol for testing granite for radioactivity. While the granite industry has grumbled about the findings, saying that competitors selling non-granite products have made a bigger deal out of this than it is, Llope applauds the industry for taking an important first step to protect consumer safety.

In the meantime, homeowners worried about their countertops can get inexpensive radon testing kits from most hardware stores to test the levels in their homes themselves.

Link [Chron.com]
Photo credit: Sinks for Less